The Downfall of Abba Hillel Silver and the Foundation of Israel

by Ofer Shiff

Publication Year: 2014

In early February 1949 American Jewry’s most popular and powerful
leader, Abba Hillel Silver (1893–1963), had summarily resigned from all
his official positions within the Zionist movement and had left New York for
Cleveland, returning to his post as a Reform rabbi. In the immediate years
prior to his resignation, during the second half of the 1940s, Silver was the
most outspoken proponent of the founding of a sovereign Jewish state. He
was the most instrumental American Jewish leader in the political struggle
that led to the foundation of the State of Israel. Paradoxically, this historic
victory also heralded Silver’s personal defeat.
Soon after Israel’s declaration of independence, he and many of his
American Zionist colleagues were relegated to the sidelines of the Zionist
movement. Almost overnight the most influential leader—one who was admired
and feared by both supporters and opponents—was stripped of his
power within both the Zionist and the American Jewish arenas.
Shiff’s book discerns the various aspects of the striking turnabout in
Silver's political fate, describing both the personal tragic story of a leader
who was defeated by his own victory, and the much broader intra-Zionist
battle which erupted in full force immediately after the founding of Israel.
Drawing extensively on Silver’s personal archival material, Shiff presents
an enlightening portrait of a critical episode in Jewish history. This book is
most relevant for anyone who attempts to understand the complex homeland-
diaspora relations between Israel and American Jewry.

Cover

Title Page, Series Page, Copyright, Dedication, About the Author

Contents

Introduction

In early February 1949, Clark Clifford, special counsel to President
Harry S. Truman, telephoned the New York office of American Jewry’s
most popular and powerful leader, Abba Hillel Silver, to personally inform
him that the first American loan to Israel—$100 million in economic aid—
had been approved. ...

Part One. The Early 1950s

1. The “Bridges and Walls” Approach

When asked to describe Silver’s brand of Zionism, I often refer to
it as the “bridges and walls” approach, relying on his mid-1950s
construal of the aphorism, “Good fences make good neighbors,” in the
context of the well-known poem by Robert Frost, “Mending Wall.” ...

2. The “American Century” in the Wake of the Holocaust

Every few years, Silver would formulate a kind of template for
repeated use in his lectures and sermons. The last of these templates
would ultimately serve him through nearly the entire final decade of his
life. In this book I will refer to it as Silver’s “hope lecture”—a lecture that
was primarily an affirmation of his optimistic faith in the inner strength ...

3. Where Judaism Differed: A Call for External and Internal Reform

Silver identified the “dark glass” approach with the heritage of
the Hebrew prophets. In his view, it was precisely man’s cognitive
limitations that provided the foundation on which the Hebrew prophets
had built their edifice of religious faith (Silver 1954c). ...

Part Two. In Retrospect: Silver’s Pre-State Zionist Career

4. Silver’s Early Struggle against Anti-Semitism and Nazism

How much of Silver’s post-statehood Zionist stance could be traced
to the early pre-1948 years of his career? At first glance, Silver’s
Zionist leadership during the 1940s appears to take an opposite direction,
emphasizing anti-Jewish hostility and expressing mistrust toward the non-Jewish American surroundings. ...

5. The 1940s: The Holocaust as Political Leverage

The 1940s were Silver’s peak years as a Zionist leader. During this
period he based his Zionist stance on an idealized hyphenated
American-Jewish identity—one that affirmed the reciprocal relationship
between Jewish solidarity and American patriotism. ...

6. 1947–1948: An American-Jewish or a Pan-Jewish Leader?

By February 17, 1947, even before Bevin’s proposal to bring the issue
of Palestine before the United Nations had been authorized by the
British Parliament, Silver had proclaimed the opening of a new chapter
in the Zionist endeavor. The current challenge, he declared, was to ensure
American support for the founding of a Jewish state. ...

Part Three. Israel Becomes an Ideological and Political Challenge

7. In the Wake of Israeli Statehood

The complexity of the dilemma faced by Silver in the wake of
Israeli statehood is illustrated in the speech he gave on June 16, 1949,
following a five-month leave of absence from his post as chairman of the
American Zionist Emergency Council (AZEC). ...

8. Identification without Subordination

Following the first years after the establishment of Israel, Silver
gradually realized that the most challenging problem he faced
was that of remaining committed to Israel while advancing an alternative
American-Zionist agenda. Compelling evidence of this concern is found in
a volume of journal entries in which he reported on Israel-related events. ...

9. The Attempt to Regain Status in the Wake of Eisenhower’s Election

During the early part of 1951, as he was coming to terms with
his secondary importance in the eyes of the Israeli political leadership,
Silver still tried to maintain his bipartisan strategy of the 1940s
in the American political arena and cultivate political connections among
the leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties. ...

10. A Recurrent Existential Threat to the Jews

A key issue that contributed to the critical turn in Silver’s attitude
toward the Republican administration was the debate regarding
American policy on supplying weapons to Israel and the Arab states.
Although this issue had previously come up during the Truman administration,
it became more pronounced within the “New Look” and containment
policies adopted by Dulles. ...

11. Unequivocal Support for Israel during the Suez Crisis

Silver’s involvement in US-Israeli interactions during the Suez
Crisis began the day after hostilities broke out, on October 30, 1956,
and continued intermittently until Israel’s withdrawal on March 7, 1957.
Silver suddenly found himself in a position of senior mediator—the very
position that he had so coveted since Israel’s foundation. ...

Epilogue: Reform Jewish Prophet or Zionist Leader?

12. Silver as a Progressive Visionary

It should be recalled that when Silver strove to demonstrate the
importance of Israel’s establishment, he depicted it as an act aimed
at ensuring an adequate air supply. Israel was now supposed to become
transparent, like air; essential though it was to Jewish survival, it could
by no means be regarded as the ultimate purpose of Jewish existence. ...

13. Nonetheless, a Zionist Leader

An additional, quite surprising, dimension of Silver’s self-assigned
prophetic role could be seen in the special relationship he developed
with the North American financier Cyrus Eaton—a 1960 Lenin Peace
Prize recipient known in the height of the Cold War as “the Kremlin’s
favorite capitalist.” ...

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